Despite producing much of the world’s diamond wealth, African nations remain mired in poverty. A toxic blend of elite looting, illicit trade, and corporate impunity has left communities betrayed—and the world complicit.
By Donald Nyarota
At luxury jewellery counters in New York, London, and Paris, the allure of an African diamond remains unmatched, glinting under pristine lights and wrapped in narratives of love and elegance. But peel back the velvet curtain, and another story emerges: one of brutal inequity, political decay, and economic theft.
The Southern African region, home to giants like De Beers and Alrosa, supplies a significant share of the world’s rough diamonds. Yet across diamond-producing nations—Botswana, Zimbabwe, Angola, the DRC—there is an unmistakable pattern: inequality is rising, communities remain impoverished, and governance is being hollowed out by corruption and corporate collusion.
It is this troubling reality that brought together civil society actors, community groups, and industry stakeholders under the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition (KPCSC) Southern Africa Region, during a regional meeting held in Johannesburg from 28–30 April 2025.
The gathering featured the screening of “Diamonds – Beyond Shining Illusions”, a documentary that exposes the human and environmental cost of Africa’s diamond trade, and sparked powerful debate on traceability, accountability, and the failure of existing governance mechanisms to protect communities.
Participating KPCSC members included Botswana Watch Organization, Centre for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG), HakiRasilimali, Maluti Community Development Forum (MCDF), and the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA).
KPCSC Southern Africa Region coalition members pose for a photo during a meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa
A Curse Wrapped in Velvet
For decades, African leaders have promised that natural wealth would uplift the continent. Instead, many countries are caught in the grip of the “resource curse”. The term, long debated in economic circles, is brutally simple in reality: countries rich in extractives often end up poorer in the long term.
“Mining is impoverishing the continent,” says Professor Patrick Bond, of the University of Johannesburg. “Unless the proceeds are invested in productive sectors, we are simply trading our future for short-term gain.”
Professor Bond adds that the continent’s economic malaise is tied to “the rise of a toxic political elite”, entrenched corruption, and a dangerous dependence on volatile commodity prices. Even Botswana—long touted as a diamond success story—is now facing uncomfortable questions about inequality, lack of a sovereign wealth fund, and shrinking returns from mining.
The Hidden Cost of Fungibility
At the heart of the crisis lies diamonds’ fungibility: their ease of movement, concealment, and laundering. With minimal oversight in the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector, rough diamonds often slip across borders, disappearing into the murky corridors of illicit trade.
In places like Marange, Zimbabwe, allegations of diamond laundering and state-corporate collusion have persisted for years. While the Kimberley Process was established to prevent the flow of conflict diamonds, critics argue it has become a “platform to legitimise organised crime,” as Farai Maguwu, CNRG executive director, puts it.
Traceability Is the Last Line of Defence
As pressure mounts globally for cleaner supply chains, African governments are being urged to adopt robust traceability systems, from mine to market. This includes digital audit trails, laser-engraving technologies, and full transparency on ownership and custody.
De Beers’ traceability technology, for instance, is scalable. But will producer countries like Zimbabwe, Angola, or Lesotho have the political will to seek access and adopt it for usage?
Shamiso Mtisi, deputy director of the ZELA, says there is a need to engender greater transparency in the diamond sector, which can be leveraged on the scalability of the De Beers traceability technology.
“Governments must lead,” says Sheila Khama, an industry expert, who is a former CEO of De Beers in Botswana. “Compliance shouldn’t be voluntary. It should be the bare minimum of operating in our countries.”
Maguwu echoed these sentiments. “If governments are not serious, other players in the value chain will simply take advantage and milk the natural resources. There is a need for a message and approach towards governments demanding that they need to come up with correct priorities, correct processes, and practices.”
Yet in many cases, governments are abdicating their role entirely, substituting state accountability for corporate PR. Civil society groups say they are routinely denied access to data and contracts, while officials enrich themselves through opaque deals.
In Tanzania, Adam Anthoy, representative of HakiRasilimali natural resource governance watchdog, says the government is fairing well in mineral governance by providing information on the mineral sector of the country.
“One of the most important laws that we have seen in Tanzania that helps to get information and data in Tanzania from the extractive industry is the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI).
“Through that act, we can get information about production, revenue, and companies in the sector, including diamond, which helps to complement the work we do with the Kimberly Process,” said Anthony.
Rethinking Diamonds as National Wealth
For decades, civil society has warned that the extraction of non-renewable resources without reinvestment is economic suicide. Diamonds represent natural capital—finite and depleting. Yet few governments treat them as such.
There are calls for countries to engage with global transparency frameworks like the EITI, and follow the path of countries like Tanzania, Angola, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, and the Central African Republic (CAR). But implementation is patchy. Zimbabwe’s EITI platform, ZMRTI, has struggled to gain traction amid political resistance. Elsewhere, governments fear external monitoring will expose entrenched graft.
Still, momentum is growing. Civil society coalitions, such as the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition (KPCSC) in Southern Africa, are building regional alliances to demand data-driven reforms, stronger stakeholder engagement, and the creation of sustainable diamond ecosystems.
A Closing Window
The global diamond industry is at a crossroads. Synthetic alternatives are rising. Consumer expectations are shifting. And if African governments fail to invest diamond revenues into long-term development, they risk losing not just revenue, but relevance.
“This is not just about diamonds,” says Maguwu. “It’s about whether African governments are prepared to govern on behalf of their people—or continue selling out the continent’s future.”